For as long as I can remember, my life has been here in this beautiful valley called Cuenca. My roots are deep like a well-planted tree, which makes it difficult to move elsewhere... it is hard for me to think that I could just pick up and leave my city, it is a part of me. I chose to be born and live here.
Daughter of Cuencanos, large families taught me the joy of sharing, beautiful landscapes and beautiful words surrounded my growing up. I inherited sensitivity to the natural world from my parents and grandparents. I appreciate beauty in all its manifestations. Since I was a child I have been able to observe all this just by growing up in this city.
I love wandering around Cuenca, feeling a bit like a tourist inside it. Slowly discovering it, touching it, savoring it, enjoying it, it is a delight that encompasses all my senses, that erases all my motives, that leaves time behind, and I lose myself in a wonderful enjoyment...
A piece of art, hidden here in a small corner of the Andes, full of grace, fragrance and charm. It seduces, attracts, and makes one fall in love with a hard to forget lover. It shows its charm, opens up, gives its love to those who really love it. Full of art, sensitivity and beauty, at times particularly cautious and dignified; unrestrained, free, beautiful among others. To me Cuenca is a "her", she has a woman's soul. She is a mother who welcomes, and gives for the simple pleasure of giving, a daughter who dreams, who flies, who seeks the freedom of air, a sister, companion and friend, partner, lover, and beautiful, witch and saint, somewhere between mysterious and crazy. Cuenca enchants, Cuenca fascinates, Cuenca enamores, Cuenca sings to me…
At her best, she dresses as a “chola”, a skirt and an embroidered blouse, she wears earrings, “pañalón”, and a straw hat, embellished by the hand of man. She is full of beauty and art everywhere one looks, and yet Cuenca as a beautiful woman, is beautiful even when she is naked. Smells of fragrance, sounds of water, views of mountains and slopes accentuate her forms, exuberant, irresistible in her charms...
“Por eso te quiero Cuenca y te quiero así…”, I love you a bit like a goddess, I want no one to touch you, no one to hurt you. I don't want your rivers to be dirty any longer or your greenery to be depleted, I can't bear to see more cars damaging your cobbled streets. Sometimes I wish that like a sleeping beauty you could freeze time, sleep a hundred years, and wake up again, fragrant, radiant, young, and beautiful...
But, I know that is not possible my dear city. Your growth continues in the midst of so much tradition, memory, and nostalgia that seems to float in the air. The growth is constant, it does not stop. You will grow and grow on your path guided by the stars. Let us know how to value this nobility, and the beauty, of which we have been able to enjoy. Let us recognize that being Cuencano is a blessing!